With a view to provide correct and authentic information on Mahatma Gandhi, Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram authority in Ahmedabad has created a dedicated portal on ‘Father of Nation’. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will launch ‘Gandhi Heritage Portal’ on September 2 from his office in New Delhi.
According to Gandhi Ashram authority, lots of false and derogatory information related to Mahatma Gandhi have been uploaded on internet. Hence, the ashram authority has decided to put authentic information on Gandhi in public domain using internet technology. The Government of India’s Ministry of Culture has given corpus fund of Rs10 crore for the purpose.
“We have utilised interest income generated from the corpus fund to build website on Mahatma. Even in future expenses related to maintenance, updation, alteration and addition in the website will
be done only from interest income,” said BS Bhatia, project director for the Gandhi Heritage Portal.
Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT) owns the portal which has five lakh pages on Mahatma Gandhi right from his family background to his early days as a student and his assassination by Nathuram Godse.
Initially, information on Gandhiji will be available in three languages — English, Hindi and Gujarati. However, SAPMT has chalked out ambitious plans to add 18 more Indian languages in near future. “Besides, we have envisaged converting information in five official languages of United Nations (UN) including Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic apart from English,” says Bhatia adding that another five lakh pages on Mahatma will be uploaded in next one year.